A new “seal-cam” was unveiled Thursday at Children’s Pool beach in La Jolla, sending out online video of frolicking seals that officials praised as a San Diego treasure but prompting privacy concerns from beach access advocates.

“We’re pleased to help fulfill Mayor Filner’s wish to share with the whole world one of San Diego’s proud natural heritages,” said Larry Wan, founder of the Western Alliance for Nature, which installed the camera for use in wildlife education and science.

The high-tech camera, donated at a cost of $40,000, provides around-the-clock monitoring of the pool and its inhabitants. It’s equipped with windshield wipers for bad weather seal-watching, and infrared capability to capture mother seals birthing pups at night.

That footage will help researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration study harbor seal reproduction, Wan said.

Beach access advocates said, however, that they fear the camera will be employed to snoop on beachgoers who cross a literal line-in-the-sand: a 150-foot rope that delineates public areas from seal turf.

“There is no control about how that’s used,” said Ken Hunrichs, president of Friends of the Children’s Pool, who said the camera raises privacy concerns and could draw masses of unexpected visitors to what he called “SeaWorld La Jolla.”

A cadre of volunteers will take shifts to operate the camera remotely, Wan said. Although most are in San Diego or other parts of Southern California, one volunteer in Australia will cover night shifts that fall during daylight hours in her part of the world.

City officials said the camera is designed to foster appreciation of marine mammals, not for enforcement of beach restrictions.

“To be able to live in this way, with respect for nature, makes us better human beings,” Mayor Bob Filner said.

Children’s Pool beach was built in 1931 as a place for kids to swim in a calm inlet. Over the last decade the beach has become a refuge for harbor seals, and the site of clashes between activists who want the beach to be off limits, and others who thinks people and wildlife should share the space.

Last year the city split that territory, leaving part of the sand to beachgoers while ceding the tidal zone to seals.

As officials announced the deployment of the “seal-cam,” Thursday, families waded in the surf below, beside signs that read “beach open for swimming and diving.” Lifeguards occasionally blared warnings to stay away from the wildlife.

Calling the beach an “ecological miracle,” Filner vowed to take stricter action to keep its restrictions in place, and to celebrate its natural attractions with the world

“We’re going to enforce this a lot better,” he said. “We can’t allow these people to destroy this international opportunity.”